A lone, battered figure stumbled through the darkened halls of Vegeta's main city. His name was Bardock, a proud Saiyan warrior and loyal soldier in the armies of Freiza, self-proclaimed ruler of the cosmos. That all changed a few hours ago, when his crew of warriors were mercilessly slaughtered by Freiza's own orders. And now, the tyrant had decided to finish the job; he was coming to destroy the entire planet of Vegeta and put an end to the threat that the Saiyans posed to his power once and for all. His only comfort as he struggled to warn his comrades of the coming danger was that his newborn son, Kakkarot, had already been sent safely away from the doomed planet. Falling through the doorway to the chamber where his fellow Saiyans were gathered, he crashed into a table, quickly gaining the attention of all those present. Ignoring their questions and jeers, Bardock laboriously rose to his feet, and propping himself against a pillar gave out his warning. "Freiza… he's coming… he's coming for us!"
His comrades stood silent for a moment before breaking out into laughter. "Us? You mean he's coming for you, right?"
"Hah! The great Bardock's had his tail handed to him, so naturally the world's going to end!"
"Maybe this'll teach you Bardock! You're just a low class warrior! Stop trying to be an Elite!"
Bardock just stood, gritting his teeth. They didn't believe him. After all, why should they? They'd done great work for Frieza, so why should he destroy them? It wasn't logical. But as Bardock was quickly learning, Frieza was a creature that relied upon fear and deceit rather than logic, and his own paranoia had driven him to exterminate his best soldiers just so that they wouldn't pose a threat to his power. There was no choice; his people would not fight, so he would have to fight for all of them. At least Kakkarot was safe. His only regret now was that he hadn't taken the chance to hold his son in his arms when he could. Growling, he silenced the others with a scream of anger and frustration. "You fools. You're all dead! I'll fight Freiza myself, with my bare hands if I have to!"
With that he ran out of the room, preparing himself for his last battle. After Bardock's departure, everyone in the room resumed their previous activity. That is, everyone except for a small group sitting around a table in the far corner of the room. At the head of the table, Vaddat, leader of an Elite team, closed his eyes and breathed in deeply before addressing his comrades. "So, it has begun, just as we always feared it would. Bardock is no fool, and if he says that Freiza is coming to kill us all than I know it to be the truth. We have all dreaded this day for years. It is our final hour. However, it will not be the end of our race."
The muscular, acrobatic man, whose lack of scars spoke of an astounding skill in battle rather than an absence of experience, turned to the attractive female at his side, Neeta, who he had the pleasure of calling his mate. "Neeta, it is time. We must begin Project Exodus. Prep the children, everyone else, you know your roles. Carry them out, and our race shall survive even this looming tragedy."
Everyone nodded once, and as one the dozen or so warriors rose and departed towards their respective duties, leaving only Vaddat and Neeta behind. Looking into her mate's eyes, Neeta spoke imploringly as tears slowly crept down her cheeks. "Vaddat, please, isn't there any other way? These are our children, Vaddat! Each a child of mated couples that feared what Frieza might one day do! Five of the twenty children are orphans, a dozen the only children of those that follow us, and the remaining three are our own! I felt it wrong enough to keep their births secret, even worse to keep them as infants within cryogenic stasis, but to suppress their heritage and send them scattering across the universe? Please, Vaddat, isn't there another way?"
The warrior just stared down for a moment, and Neeta could swear that she saw a lone tear track down his stoic face. "Neeta, I love those children as if all of them were our own. Don't you think that it was hard for me as well, placing our children in tubes rather than taking them into our arms and loving them as children were meant to be loved? But if we keep them with us, they will all die, and our race will end. Bardock is a mighty warrior, but he won't be able to stop Freiza. Even if the rest of us joined him in this battle, we might destroy Freiza's army and his personal elite soldiers, but he would still kill us all after brushing aside our best efforts like an annoying insect. Now, I imagine that Bardock will only be able to buy us a half an hour at best. You must prep the children for launch. The others will construct an energy shield to protect the space pods from damage as they escape, and I'll mask the children's energy signatures to keep Freiza from sensing their escape. As far as he'll know, all of the Saiyans were wiped out, and our children will be safe from him. Maybe one day one of them will grow to be strong enough to destroy Freiza's evil, but that will never happen if we don't act. Now go Neeta, and remember that I love you, and that our love is what allows us to send our children away so that they can have lives of their own."
She just stared at him for a moment, before darting in and pressing her lips against his. They sat there for what seemed like an eternity but was really only a few seconds before Vaddat gently pushed Neeta away, his lips silently mouthing the word "go". Nodding, she sprung away from her mate and raced out of the chamber, not allowing anyone to see the torrent of tears streaming down her face. Screeching to a halt in one of the launch rooms, she tore open a disguised bulkhead and frantically punched a code into the keyboard that had been masked from detection by the false wall. As the final digits were entered, the sounds of machinery coming to life filled the air, and the entire wall opened to reveal a small chamber. Punching in another code, twenty hatches opened in the hidden chamber's far wall and robotic arms gently laid small space pods in front of each of them. Neeta hesitated for a moment, her finger hovering over a large, red button situated firmly in the middle of the keyboard before she pulled it away. Just once, she thought desperately. I want to see them just once.
Slowly, she strode over to the space capsules, and kneeling in front of one scraped the frost off of its small window. Inside, there was a young boy, black hair sprouting out in a small ponytail at the back of his neck, much like her own hairstyle. Moving over to the next pod, she revealed the presence of another boy, this one with stronger features than his brother and hair growing wildly in all directions, just like his father. Kneeling over the final pod, her eyes misted over as she looked at a little girl with long black hair and the sweetest expression that Neeta had ever seen plastered across her sleeping face. Neeta couldn't take it; she just broke down weeping. These were her children. Each had had their tails surgically removed so that nobody could tell that they were Saiyans, they had never seen her face, but they were all still her children. It hurt so much sending them away, but what choice did she have? Stumbling back over to the keyboard, she pressed the button, sending twenty young children, including her own, spiraling out into the vastness of space. Suddenly she felt a massive energy surge up in orbit, and she knew that this was it. The end was coming, and she would die with everyone else on this planet in a matter of seconds. But, at least the children escaped. Slumping down to the floor, she prayed to whatever gods might be out there in the universe as Freiza's energy blast ate through the planet's surface. "Please, be safe my babies. Please be safe."
As the energy began to consume the chamber, she felt oddly comforted, as though her prayers had been heard. And then there was nothing, as the planet died with its entire people. All save for a young child hurtling towards the planet Earth and his brother somewhere out in space, a prince and his loyal bodyguard, and twenty young lives held safely within their space chambers, heading for an unknown future.
End Prologue
